Sunset

Sunset Magazine is a magazine covering western homes, gardens, food and travel (five regional editions). Founded in 1898, it is a monthly publication published by Sunset Publishing Corp. Sunset Magazine subjects include home and gardening as well as travel and tourism. The senior vice president is Kevin Lynch.

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Articles from Vol. 229, No. 2, August

Welcome to summer-and the Ultimate Outdoor Living Room created for our 2012 Celebration Weekend.Our fantasy, as the weather gets warm?That we can just pick up our lives and move them outside. Which is exactly what our Ultimate Outdoor Living Room, unveiled...

Our fantasy, as the weather gets warm? That we can just pick up our lives and move them outside. Which is exactly what our Ultimate Outdoor Living Room, unveiled at this past June's Celebration Weekend open house, in Menlo Park, California, is all...

To-do list* For thin-skinned new potatoes, harvest when the plants flower. For larger spuds with thicker skin, wait to dig up until after the leaves turn brown.* Stop fertilizing flowers, roses, shrubs, and trees by midmonth. Gradually cut back on irrigation...

GARDEN WE LOVE YEAR-ROUND BEAUTY With plantings as lush as these, you'd never miss the Lawn that once covered this Roseville, California, backyard (above). Landscape designer Roberta Walker packed the beds with colorful textural and blooming...

At last- after 10 years of customer pleas- Charles Vhan has written his first cookbook. In this exclusive preview, the man behind San Francisco's Slanted Door shows how to cook at home Vietnamesestyle, using California ingrethents, to make food that...

In Charles's own words "Although I was born in Vietnam, I grew up in Northern California just as the farmers'-market revolution was beginning, around the time that the legendary Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse was really hitting its stride. When...

Eureka's waterfront then: An industrial zone that cast a funky stench over Humboldt Bay. And now: Last year, it got spiffed up to the tune of $6 million, which bought a new fishing terminal, lamppost-lined boardwalk, and soon-to-come public seafood...

Four ways to experience the romance of the small farm (and pick up new skills), from now into harvest seasonTHE ALLURE of the farm has always been powerful: It's a throwback to a simpler way of life, in a setting that's a whole lot more scenic than our...

THE ALLURE of the farm has always been powerful: It's a throwback to a simpler way of life, in a setting that's a whole lot more scenic than our daily office park habitat And for many farmers, new tourist interest has allowed their farms to thrive....

DENVER The Washington Park bistro Bittersweet is in full bloom. Alongside the climbing roses and the hydrangeas, the restaurant now grows edible blossoms like society garlic, chives, and even Parisian micro marigolds (inspired by chef Olav Peterson's...

The return of the locally grown tomato is a taste revolution that started with California chefs - but also involved seed sleuths, rebel farmers, and ...you.Barb Stuckey has a favorite summer dinner, while her fiancé digs into a grilled rib-eye on their...

Barb Stuckey has a favorite summer dinner. While her fiance digs into a grilled rib-eye on their patio in Healdsburg, California, she'll have a giant, meaty, vine-ripened tomato. That's her main course. "They're nature's perfect food," says Stuckey,...

Hard to find but easy to grow, Chioggia beets dress up any plate.GROWOn the outside, a Chioggia (kee-oh-jah) looks like any common beet. But slicing it crosswise reveals a gorgeous red-and-white bull's-eye. This heirloom variety dates back to the mid-i8oos...

GROW On the outside, a Chioggia (kee-oh-jah) looks like any common beet. But slicing it crosswise reveals a gorgeous red-and-white bull's-eye. This heirloom variety dates back to the mid--1800s and has a sweet, mild flavor that makes it extra versatile....

PHILIPSBURG, MTMontana's secret charmer is a must-stop on your next roadtrip.Charmsville, where? Halfway between Glacier and Yellowstone in western Montana. Located on State 1 (aka the Pintler Scenic Loop), P-burg sits in a scenic valley with views of...

A Colorado couple turns a 1960s Scotty HiLander into the rolling getaway of their dreams.What lies insiae tne Scotty: almost 100 square feet of dinette, kitchen, and bedroom spaceCHRISTA and KURT Johnson of Conifer, Colorado, work in high-class, high-tech...

CHRISTA AND KURT Johnson of Conifer, Colorado, work in high-class, high-tech industries: She does marketing for resort real estate like the Four Seasons; he's a software developer. But when they're on vacation, they don't call down for room service...

On the banks of the Columbia, Google helps make a garden-and schoolkids-grow.HAVE YOU HEARD the one about the cloud that walked into a farmers' market?No joke. The city of The Dalles is a rural community of 14,440 in windy, dry north-central Oregon....

HAVE YOU HEARD the one about the cloud that walked into a farmers' market? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] No joke. The city of The Dalles is a rural community of 14,440 in windy, dry north-central Oregon. Cherries are the big business here, followed...

WE PUT OUR NAMES on the list for brunch one weekend morning at Tasty n Sons, the cool, industrial-rustic restaurant in Portland. Two hours, we were cheerily told. A two-hour wait for fried eggs. We said, Sure. I'd never been to Portland before,...

POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE There are plenty of long sandy beaches in Point Reyes perfect for those weekends when the fog parts and your body aches for vitamin D. Now there's somewhere affordable to crash that doesn't involve packing a sleeping bag....

These four luxuriant ferns don't need to drink a lot to be happy. BY JANET KINOSIANFERNS ARE THE TILOA SWINTON of the plant world - graceful, cool, yet full of contradictions.Graphic, flower-free fronds make them seem modern, but they're among the most...

FERNS ARE THE TILDA SWINTON of the plant world--graceful, cool, yet full of contradictions. Graphic, flower-free fronds make them seem modern, but they're among the most ancient plants around. They can be both evergreen and deciduous, depending...

* The last time we were challenged to a smackdown was the Judgment of Paris wine tasting of 1976, when Stag's Leap Wine Cellars and Chateau Montelena beat France's big-gun wineries in a blind tasting that put California wine on the global map. And...

Facing an avalanche of produce? Use it now, and preserve it for later.CHILESEATTHEM NOWShrimp jalapeño poppersSERVES 8 I 1 HOURLeyden is a Dutch cheese that's like gouda with cumin seeds mixed in. If you can't find it, use regular gouda and a few more...

Skip France this summer and drink pink here instead. The West's best rosés are channeling the great styles of Provence.THERE'S A MOMENT that happens only in late summer. You have just a few hours of warm, slanting sun left in the day, and only a few...

THERE'S A MOMENT that happens only in late summer. You have just a few hours of warm, slanting sun left in the day, and only a few of these sun-baked days left in the year. A glass of crisp, cold, dry pink wine on a little bistro table in the late...

Sonoma or Napa? Two rivals slug it out over which wine country has the juice.THE CASE FOR SONOMA The county's 1,576 square miles are a sprawling garden of organic produce, free-range meats, and since 1824, grapes. (George Yount planted Napa's first vines...

EVERYONE FROM BUDDHIST MONKS TO POP STARS HAS COME TO ASSAJARA FOR SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTMENT. CALIFORNIA'S ORIGINAL ZEN RETREAT NOW ATTRACTS A NEW KIND OF STUDENTS, LOOKING TO UNPLUG ANU RECHARGE. POWER DOWN YOUR PHOHE BECAUSETHE FIRST GONGI hear isn't really...

THE FIRST GONG I hear isn't realty a gong but a gentle ding-ding-ding as a monk moves down the path in front of my cabin. I struggle to my feet, grab my water bottle, and shuffle out into the pitch-dark on my way to morning meditation. It's 5:20...

Double visionOn a recent trip to Palm Springs, I settled in poolside at the Saguaro hotel with the June issue of Sunset and a pina colada. After a few minutes, I turned the page to realize I was looking at the same view both in the magazine (SoCaI Insider...